Adrian College baseball routs cross-town rival Siena Heights

Saturday

Apr 27, 2013 at 1:43 PMApr 27, 2013 at 2:19 PM

Bulldogs cruise to 17-1 win over Saints

By Mark JagordDaily Telegram Special Writer

Adrian College hosted cross-town rival Siena Heights University in a non-conference baseball game Friday night at Nicolay Field. The first four innings looked like it might be a tight game, until Adrian got a season-high nine-run fifth inning to break a one-run game wide open and coast to a 17-1 win.

The Bulldogs would add two in the sixth and four in the seventh to round out the scoring.

The Bulldogs (22-10) scored 17 unanswered runs to overwhelm the Saints (12-25) in matching their highest run total of the season, while the Saints allowed the second most runs by an opponent this season.

"The difference in the game was definitely pitching," said Adrian coach Craig Rainey. "The one inning (fifth) their guy walked a few guys, and we got a big hit afterwards. They made a couple of errors, and we just capitalized. And that one inning kind of made the game look a little different."

Siena Heights coach John Kolasinski echoed those sentiments.

"They just took it to our bullpen, making us throw a lot of pitches," said Kolasinski. "We threw too many balls and made a couple of mistakes behind us. and they hit it all over the place."

The Bulldogs accounted for 13 hits in the contest and had at least one hit in five of eight turns at bat.

Jeff Davis (2-0) got the win for Adrian (2-0), going six innings and allowing three hits and no earned runs with a walk and seven strikeouts. Stephen Fisher (1-3) took the loss for the Saints, going four innings and allowing two runs (one earned) with three strikeouts.

Siena Heights scored the first run of the game in the second inning before Adrian started its rally.

The Bulldogs took advantage of nine walks and three errors by the Saints. Adrian led 2-1 after four innings and then rapped five hits in the fifth to take the 11-1 lead. The Bulldogs scored 19 runs in the fifth all season entering the contest.

In the fifth, Andrew DeLuca had a RBI single and later scored on a wild pitch for Adrian. Ben Yax had a RBI single, and DeLuca came up again and doubled home a run. Jeff Gertley also had a RBI double in the inning.

Sam Fischer led off the sixth with a towering home run to left field, his team-leading sixth of the season. Yax also drew a bases-loaded walk to push across another run.

In the seventh, the big hit came off the bat of Garrett Green. Green drove a 3-2 pitch to the left-center gap for three RBIs, scoring Cody Meyer, Jake Gilstorff and Jamey Sackett.

DeLuca finished 2-for-3 with two runs and three RBIs. Fischer went 2-for-3 with three runs scored, a triple and a walk. R.J. Rios came off the bench to go 2-for-3 with two runs and his second double of the season.

Adrian gets back to conference play today, traveling to Olivet for a 1 p.m. doubleheader that could go a long way in deciding where it finishes in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The Bulldogs could win the title with some help, or with a bad showing in the final four games, miss the league tournament. The Bulldogs currently sit in second place in the MIAA.

"We got Olivet this weekend and it's huge," Rainey said. "We're competing for a conference title, and we've got to pretty much probably win-out to do that. We know what's ahead of us, and we're capable of doing it and we just got to get it done."

Although the Saints have been eliminated from any Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference postseason play, they have been on somewhat of a roll recently, winning four of the last five entering the game against Adrian. Siena currently sits in seventh-place

Rainey and Kolasinski have coached more than 1,800 collegiate games collectively with this contest being the 13th meeting between the two. Rainey holds a 10-3 edge since 2004.

"It's tough to gauge a lot of these games (with Siena), because we both have four conference games this weekend," Rainey said. "It's a tough gauge, it's fun to play, it's a good rivalry, and it's good for the kids to get a chance to play each other."

View more photos from this game

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